High adventure that’s beyond compare

Paul Hudson - 10:37am on Thursday July 3rd 2008

Tomorrow is the last day at Linux Format before I leave. No, I'm not resigning or moving magazines (sorry!), but I am going on sabbatical, and that means 64 days away from the office. I've spent the last few months doing all the work I would normally have done during that time - staff appraisals, budgeting, flatplanning and, yes, even a little bit of writing, so I'm sure LXF will be all smooth sailing while I'm away.

Some people use their sabbatical to sit at home thinking they really ought to write a novel. Me, I'm flying off to China this Monday, because I've volunteered to help teach at a Christian summer camp in Fujian province in the south of China. Fujian is famous for its tea, but during summer I expect I'll be more worried about the typhoons and the floods.

If you were interested, wo hui shuo yidianr putonghua, ke shi wo shuo de bu hao. I've even managed to learn to write my name ("Da Bao", or "Big Paul") in Chinese characters, which I think is about as far as I shall go with the writing! So, I'll be teaching in English, which is probably for the best. It'll be quite clear to the locals that I'm a "lao wai", so I expect any attempts by me to speak Chinese will result in laughter followed by them speaking English.

While I'm away, Simon Pickstock of PC Answers fame will be taking over at the helm of LXF. He's a closet Linux fanboy, so the magazine is in safe hands. He may even blog here once or twice, which would make him a more frequent blogger than Graham!

If you want to get in touch with someone from the magazine while I'm away, I suggest you email Graham or Mike - there's no internet access in the village I'm going to, which, again, is probably for the best. Future's official sabbatical policy is that I'm guaranteed a job at the same level when I return, so perhaps I'll follow the trend and move to PC Answers. Speaking of which, Nick has just finished the PC Answers redesign, and it looks awesome - pick up a copy at your local store and I think you'll be surprised!

Wo bu shi bao bei de bao; shi bao hu de bao.

Your comments

Best of luck. Hope you have

Anonymous Coward (not verified) - July 3, 2008 @ 11:11am

Best of luck. Hope you have a great time.

I think proclaiming your

Annoyed (not verified) - July 3, 2008 @ 12:46pm

I think proclaiming your religion here is in bad taste, to say the least...

Annoyed: I didn't proclaim

Hudzilla (not verified) - July 3, 2008 @ 1:37pm

Annoyed: I didn't proclaim my religion, I just said I was working at a Christian summer camp. Non-Christians are allowed to do that too, you know! That said, I do happen to be Christian, and I see no reason why "Life at Linux Format Towers (and beyond)" should exclude religion - it's hardly something we mention frequently!

Have a great time in China,

towy71 (not verified) - July 3, 2008 @ 5:10pm

Have a great time in China, absolutely no offence, I always liked Dave Allen's "and may yours gods go with you" :D

Good for you, a friend of

Alex Higgins (not verified) - July 3, 2008 @ 5:38pm

Good for you, a friend of mine is out there if you meet him you'll know, ginger Robert from the Dee in Northern Ireland., he does a great Fr Dougal McQuire, or is that Ardal O'Hanlon impression.

Have a great and life enhancing adventure.

AH

Have a great time, Paul, and

Marrea (not verified) - July 3, 2008 @ 8:17pm

Have a great time, Paul, and thanks for all the help with my programming queries!

We'll miss you.

Good luck in China Paul.

Davido02 (not verified) - July 4, 2008 @ 3:19am

Good luck in China Paul. Full marks for using you time voluntarily for a good cause. Coincidentally I was speaking with a guy just back from China having undertaken a similar project and he had an awesome time. Just a slight pity someone was upset about you mentioning it was a Christian initiative but hey we all got to live!

To Alex Higgins (!) Do you mean Donaghadee when you say the Dee?

I was wondering where "Evil" Nick had gone to as he seemed to just fall of the page! (ha ha)

Interesting to see that you guys in future rotate between titles are you guys teccies first and journos second or vice versa? Hmmm.... teccies and journos in the once office Im sure that must be fun :-)

Hope you have fully briefed Simon to keep an eye on Mike so that he gets some work out of him over the coming months!!!!!